Mail-in Voting vs. Absentee Voting

With all the talk about “mail in voting” let’s make a few things clear: There is a huge difference between “mail in voting” and absentee voting.

Here in Maine we have absentee voting. What that means is you REQUEST a ballot and either mail it in or take it to your town hall. Some states have what is known as “mail-in voting”. Here is the problem you are hearing about when people talk about “mail in voting”: In these states, ballots are just sent out to everyone on the voter roles, without a request for that ballot. The problem with this is that these ballots are just sent to an address, regardless of the voter’s circumstances. The voter may have moved or died. So now we have ballots that could be used by another voter under someone else’s name. Can you see the problem here?

In a busy election in big cities, these ballots will probably never be verified. There is simply no way to verify tens of millions of ballots. But that is the goal of those pushing mail-in voting: unscrupulous people could vote multiple times and if they are not caught, then they get away with election fraud!

To be clear, this type of voting is not done here in Maine. Also to be clear, Democrats want this type of voting here in Maine. They want to just send ballots out; who cares if they go to the right person or not?

Also here in Maine, any voter can go to their town hall and vote right then and there, any day the town hall is open between October 5 – 29. You will fill out an absentee ballot and hand it back in right there if you wish. Sign and seal, then turn it in right then and there and you’re done.

I hope this short essay helps you to understand the differences in these two voting methods.